[HPforGrownups] flooing around Hogwarts

[Allen, Rebecca]

No: HPFGUIDX 32973

Eloise wrote:

> Megan refers to the incident where Snape gets Lupin to floo 
> into his office. 
> This raises some security issues in my mind.
> 
> Why don't the students use floo powder to get around the 
> school? Is it just 
> that the school is so complex that they wouldn't be able to 
> get off at the 
> right stop? Or is there some enchantment which stops them?
<snipped for brevity>

I've been reading this thread with interest. 

Am I right to think that the incident in which Snape calls Lupin into his office is the *only* example of flooing in Hogwarts we ever see? Did anyone but me think it was interesting that, in this case, Snape *invited* Lupin in and evidently used his own floo powder to do the flooing? This seems to be more of a pull than a push; in the other flooing we've seen the flooer just uses their own powder and no one has to be waiting for them at the other end.

So my theory is that maybe within Hogwarts you have to be invited into the other person's room and maybe they even have to use their powder to get you there (assuming they have powder, which might be a controlled substance on campus). This would at least guard against uninvited guests.

Of course this doesn't explain Sirius's head-in-the-fireplace thing, but this might be qualitatively different from flooing; maybe it's only the image and the voice of the person which is transported in this case.

Clearly there's got to be some enchantment preventing students from randomly flooing around the castle; otherwise they'd be flooing into each others common rooms and dorm rooms late at night for all sorts of purposes, both nefarious and amicable. ;-) I'd love to see a more comprehensive explanation of flooing (and protections against) in future books.

/Rebecca


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